Blog

As a consumer, I’ve always been amazed to see t-shirts in my local stores within hours of my favorite teams winning championships. T-Shirts and embroidered hats are positioned close to the store cash registers, with lines of buyers waiting to make their purchases. As if the team’s victory wasn’t magical enough, the production, shipping, and store placement surely adds to the excitement of happy fans.

For the past six years, American Expediting has been a key partner in making this magic. We’ve handled retail deliveries throughout the country for most of the major sport leagues, and for dozens of collegiate and franchised teams including; Pittsburgh Penguins, Boston Bruins, Anaheim Ducks, and Chicago Blackhawks from the NHL. Miami Heat and Golden State Warriors from the NBA, The Ohio State University, Kentucky Wildcats, UNC, and Duke’s college basketball and football programs.

Building up this portfolio of deliveries comes only after intensive logistical planning, operational routing, and chaotic evenings. The process begins when the printers receive their projected store orders for immediate delivery. A retail store may order thousands of units for their top stores, with only a small amount delivering in a rush. The remaining arrive more economically within 2 to 3 days. In the case of this past week’s victory for the Pittsburgh Penguins, we received a bulk spreadsheet from one client with over 400 lines of orders. The raw data involved is an intensive puzzle. The list is made up of four printers spread out anywhere from 30 to 150 miles from Pittsburgh, two major retailers, over 60,000 t-shirts and 2,500 cartons. We also take into account the store receiving hours, and estimated availability that starts at 2:30am and runs throughout the day. We quickly unscramble the data to determine the vehicle types that are needed, route the deliveries, estimate delivery times, and charges for each route.

This week our real magician was Brandon Yagelski out of our Pittsburgh location. Brandon worked with our logistics planners and coordinated with dozens of drivers to be prepared to activate for remote printer pick-ups immediately after the game. He got on the phone and confirmed each drivers availability, and stayed in contact with them until each box was delivered and signed for by store personnel. While the process may appear magical to us as consumers, the process and success requires hard work, determination, and the luck of the puck going into the goal.

Great job to everyone involved!!

We can expedite just about anything for you, quickly and professionally.

Are you a busy individual or a customer-focused organization with a unique or out-of-the-ordinary request? We Say Yes! The American Expediting team is excited about meeting your concierge needs. We’ve delivered everything from birthday cakes, groceries and event tickets to flowers and gifts on behalf of our customers. We run errands, pick up prescriptions, even retrieve keys or passports that have been left at home. We meet and assist delivery personnel, arrange ground transport for travelers, as well as arrange auto transport and moving services. We transport pets, too.